South Asia Citizens Web

Fear should be a habit for each one of us and whether we are afraid or not, no one will be spared from the pious wrath of God’s self-appointed helpers.
Until then, sit back and await your turn.

It looks unlikely that the Nigerian government is doing everything it can to trace and bring back the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram. In the face of frequent raids by the militant group, the government must do more to secure all citizens

A lawyer and prominent human rights defender, Mr. Rashid Rehman Khan, was gunned downed yesterday by unknown persons at his chambers at 8.45 p.m. He had been receiving death threats from the Muslim fundamentalists since February. In the month of April he was threatened in court during the proceedings before the judge by a lawyer, Zulfiqar Sindhu and two other complainants and was warned that from the next hearing he should not defend a Muslim lecturer of Bahawalpur University in a case of Blasphemy. Sindhu actually stated before the judge that Mr. Rehman would be eliminated. The presiding judge remained silent and took no notice of the threats by the bigots who were forcing the judge to sentence the lecturer to death.

We the undersigned are deeply disturbed by the reported remarks of the Prime Ministerial candidate of the NDA at an election rally in West Bengal that “infiltrators” from Bangladesh belonging to a particular religious community must be sent back. Apart from the sheer inhumanity of the remark, we fear that in a country in which every citizen does not possess documentary proof of citizenship such a move would simply cause a general victimization of persons belonging to that particular religious community.

Heard the terrible news a few hours ago that the courageous Multan-based advocate Rashid Rehman Khan of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has been shot dead in Multan. Criminal cowards barged into his chamber and shot him dead, injuring two others. He had been under threat for some time for defending a blasphemy accused, but no protection was provided to him – although given the climate in Pakistan, any lawyer taking up a blasphemy case should be given 24-hour protection.
Gentle, brave, (…)